Predict Kipyegon & McLaughlin-Levrone's rare off-event matchups, and Girma's steeple WR attempt in Paris

Join the Paris Fantasy Diamond League by 1pm ET this Friday here: https://hpr.github.io/paris23

Paris startlists are up, setting the stage for a number of interesting matchups headlined by superstars debuting in new events and a steeplechase WR attempt by indoor 3K WR-holder Lamecha Girma.

In the women’s 400, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone is set to make her DL debut. Running any DL event is rare for SML, let alone one in an off-event. Despite her “official” PB seeding her second-to-last, her 47-second relay split at Worlds last year would arguably make her the favorite if we knew she was still in that fitness — which we don’t, because this will also serve as SML’s outdoor opener.

It’s just as unclear in the women’s 5000m, where WR-holder Letesenbet Gidey is coming off an unexpected loss and DQ at World XC and will be facing newly-minted 1500m WR-holder Faith Kipyegon, who hasn’t run a 5K in coming on eight years — her PB of 14:31 is from well before super-spikes were in use.

But the fastest performance of the day might just come in the men’s 3K steeple, where Lamecha Girma is coming off a blazing winter in which he bested Daniel Komen’s indoor 3K world record with a 7:23, and is officially attempting the world record of 7:53 outdoors over the same distance, this time with barriers and a water jump. (There’s also an interesting non-DL 2-mile event being staged with Jakob Ingebrigsten attempting another of Komen’s legendary world records.)

There’s plenty more to be digested here, and you can predict all the DL races at the Paris Fantasy Diamond League. TrackBot is coming off its best performance yet in Florence, where it finished 6th place just behind winner Huangdi. Can TrackBot finally podium in Paris? You be the judge.

Discuss on LetsRun and read the top TrackBot predictions here: https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=12020159

Feel free to respond there or to this email with feedback or questions! Have fun —

~ habs

Join the Paris Fantasy Diamond League by 1pm ET this Friday here: https://hpr.github.io/paris23